Gun and Powder at Paper Mill — Page 6

I feel like Ciara Renee’s career has been one failure to launch after another. Cast in BIG FISH straight out of college — turns out to be a quick flop. Cast in HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME — goes nowhere. Two shows in which she had prominent replacement roles (FROZEN and WAITRESS) closed prematurely due to COVID. THE WRONG MAN didn’t move to Broadway. She probably thought WANTED/GUN AND POWDER was her big chance to originate a leading role on Broadway, and is using the court to litigate her hurt feelings.

“She probably thought WANTED/GUN AND POWDER was her big chance to originate a leading role on Broadway, and is using the court to litigate her hurt feelings.”

Based on the filing, I’d say she was led to rightly believe that it was her chance or originate a leading role. And if an agreement was in place, she should be pursuing what was rightfully hers.

I do wonder if she should have waited until the show actually opened to start this claim, as they could now really cancel the entire production and say they don’t owe her a dime if no production happens. The whole show will probably go the way of Paradise Square, anyway.

NB, this is “racist Boris!”, firmly on the side of a black person.

Updated On: 8/25/25 at 04:58 PM

I have no stake in the game here. I am a theater lover and saw the show at Papermill and Loved It. BUT, This seems to be a re-occurring issue within the world of Broadway. Actors/Actresses are promised things in the developmental stages. They do all the work, All the backer auditions, Regional premieres, industry readings, give insight during the table reads and re-writes. They perform at huge donor events, Record demos and are advertised as the upcoming Broadway company and then BAM! They are removed from the project. Several of the ensemble members were let go from the project before the last workshop. They too were strung along..

I am annoyed that the union that is supposed to protect their actors in some regards have failed them in securing that these issues don't happen across the board. We will never know what conversations went on between the producers and Ciara. She maybe she is Delulu or this may in fact be her truth. However, If her claims are true and she has documented proof, Contracts, Letters of agreements, Heck Text messages. She may have a legal claim. For too long Producers get away with murder doing this time and time again. Even if she doesn't get a dime she is blowing the whistle on the Dog eat Cat machine we call showbiz



There are even rumors that the promo reel they are using to get word of mouth out showcasing one of their dynamic performers may be replaced by a star name when it comes to Broadway next year. However, they are using said promo reel of that performer's talent. likeness and artistry everywhere to gain the public and investors favor. It's wrong! For far too long actresses like Ciara has fallen victim to this sort of business tactics. Most Actors are afraid to speak out for fear of being Blacklisted. The few that did speak out were canceled and we never heard of them again.

I wish her the best of luck. Her ask for financial is a huge ask but we don't know what she turned down waiting for the green light on this gig to only be sidelined. I hope it gets better for all actors before it get's worse

Is it common for a contract to do a regional production to include a clause that essentially guarantees right of first refusal for a subsequent (and hypothetical at this stage) Broadway run?

AC126748 said: "Is it common for a contract to do a regional production to include a clause that essentially guarantees right of first refusal for a subsequent (and hypothetical at this stage) Broadway run?"

I believe so. My experience is: actors in new work see the road to Broadway quite early, and producers talk about the 'eventual Broadway production' on day one of the 20-hour reading. Broadway is Finish Line. A regional theatre, especially one with a history of transfers, would absolutely have Broadway on the table.

I think things could also be complicated by the fact that there were two "out of town" try-outs for this show. So we also don't know what was in Solea's contract back at Signature, and if there was anything about moving forward with the show, where that stands now due to the length of time that's passed. A good case study for "right of first refusal" going forward-you have to really define who actually came first. Again, I don't know any of the contractual details, but just something I'm thinking about that further muddies the waters.

PipingHotPiccolo said: "if the producers put ROFRs in writing to two actresses re the same show, Ciara has a real good case here, but I cant fathom any group of businesspeople could be that irresponsible. it seems they soured on her, for whatever reason, and thats perfectly legal unless a document says otherwise."

The ROFR is in both the COST contract at Paper Mill, and the LORT contract at Signature. Here and in your earlier post you are giving some advice that does not recognize that these are Equity agreements, and thus it is not possible to have a contract that does not have an ROFR provision. The only issue here that I do not know the answer to is whether the earlier production was also affiliated with the same producing team(s). FWIW the lawyer filing the complaint seems oblivious to the impact of the collectively bargained contract(s).

BorisTomashevsky said: "I know there was something written about the producing company changing names. Could that have been done to try and give themselves a loophole or immunity to Ciara’s contract, and make it easier to not proceed with her as well as avoid being sued?"



No.

Bwaygurl2 said: "JSquared2 said: "BorisTomashevsky said: "I know there was something written about the producing company changing names. Could that have been done to try and give themselves a loophole or immunity to Ciara’s contract, and make it easier to not proceed with her as well as avoid being sued?"



No.

"

Lol."


You always add so much. Keep it up!

For those of you with access to and quoting the Equity agreements.

• Where are you finding the COST First Right of Refusal language?
"16. Cross-Contractual Productions and Jobbing Tours" & Addendum 2 seems like a stretch for a Production that transfers to Broadway years later. It also leaves it up to the discretion of Equity so I'd imagine that if one performer was able to use this, everyone in the production would as well. But that it would be Equity's fight. If she went to Equity and didn't agree with the outcome of their decision or conversations with the producers, maybe she'd have right to go around it? But wouldn't the suit mention that?

• The LORT agreement (which is public) doesn't seem to have any First Right of Refusal language. (It discusses transfers to other LORT agreements, but that seems like it.) Did anyone find anything else? If so, can you point me to it?

• The Production Contract has "71. Transfer to Production Contract" which does discuss transfers from LORTs (but that is limited to 3 years, so the First Right of Refusals for the Signature production would have expired). COST contracts would fall under "71. F. Other Contracts Covered by Transfer Requirements." It would give the Paper Mill company a two-year First Right of Refusal, but also limit damages to two weeks of either the original agreement or the Production agreement, whichever is greater? Does that seem like a fair read?

• If she had additional rights from a rider, why wouldn't her lawyer have listed that text or included the rider? Or made stronger reference to it? In the complaint (which has already been posted here), references to where she acquired the right to future negotiations are vague at best.

• How are there damages already? The show doesn't have a theater, it's not selling tickets, it's not rehearsing: someone may have been promised "her" role, but they're not being paid to perform or rehearse it - so neither would she. Nor is there any guarantee that the show would even run six months on Broadway. So, why launch the suit now? I know all we can do is surmise, but did she think if she sued them they'd hire her instead? Is she just trying to bring the show negative press while it's trying to compete for a theater/raise the money? Damages seem unlikely at best.

• Lastly, the backbone of development has always been multiple LLCs: a development company raises the money for development investment like readings, workshops, enhancements, and non-commercial try-outs and gets rolled into the commercial company when producers want to capitalize an income-generating (larger raise) production. It would seem (and I'm genuinely asking people smarter than I), that if that roll-up erased the agreements of the first, it would largely make the development LLCs moot: you'd be contracting with people to keep on the commercial production, but fighting to dismiss the contracts you don't want? Also, it would make nearly every first right of refusal earned for development completely meaningless. That can't be the case, right? Maybe this is what she's challenging? (The suit is written so poorly that it seems hard to even tell.)

Is it really that easy to assign assets from one LLC to another, while just disposing of liabilities? In terms of physical assets: If you've financed an asset (so have debt against something), can you really sell that asset to another LLC for, say, $1 and just dispel the debt you have on that asset? Do LLCs really shield that much liability. Can they? Do you know?

Updated On: 8/27/25 at 01:09 PM

They shot themselves in the foot here by using her for press post Papermill, then alleging she was un collaborative during Papermill. They’ve contradicted themselves on their justification of her firing. This isn’t just contractual, it’s messy business proceedings to dispose of her when her talent services were no longer needed to fundraise for their show. Bad look on the producers.

For anyone who wants more info on what’s in the court documents + allegedly what was in the contract and what was said between the two parties, i made an explainer vid on clock app —

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT6pF2FuR/

there’s some great discussion happening in the comments section after digging deeper into the documents that are publicly available for this case 🫶🏻

stageleftreport said: "For anyone who wants more info on what’s in the court documents + allegedly what was in the contract and what was said between the two parties, i made an explainer vid on clock app —

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT6pF2FuR/

there’s some great discussion happening in the comments section after digging deeper into the documents that are publiclyavailable for this case 🫶🏻"

Great work on this. I think most people who are saying “she’s just being difficult” will come around and see that Ciara is a great role model in how she’s standing up for herself here.

Updated On: 8/28/25 at 12:49 PM